I Know What You Did in San Francisco
by shawnkempredemption
Summary: All Natalia Ristić wants is to be happy. Happy that the Uniter has been found. Happy that she met Alek Petrov. But she can't be. After all, the Order wiped out her entire family, and she won't be happy until they're all dead. Alek/OFC
1. Preface

_**April 20, 1999**_

**FOUR-YEAR-OLD GIRL LONE SURVIVOR OF ATTACK ON TOWN**

**BELGRADE, Serbia, FRY-** a four-year-old girl whose identity is being withheld by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been named as the sole survivor of a bomb that wiped out her entire town of Skadarlija in Belgrade. Her parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and both sets of grandparents are all among the deceased. It is thought that NATO may have mistakenly bombed the town on suspicion that it was harboring an entire battalion of the Kosovo Liberation Army. This is not the first time that NATO's bombing campaign has been criticized for the significant loss of civilian life. It is believed that this air strike has claimed the lives about 820 inhabitants.

There is no word yet on the condition of the girl, or where she will go now that her entire family is gone. The Kosovo Liberation Army and the Serbian forces have begun to pile up their own death count in the ongoing conflict in Kosovo. Now that NATO has also added a hefty amount of innocent lives to their casualties, the USA is beginning to think that they need to get down to business instead of beating around the bush and paying for it.

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><p><strong>I'm a huge sucker for OFC's, so I couldn't leave this show alone from my destructive ways. <strong>

**This is my first story on here, so I hope that you guys will like it! Tell me what you think of my fic so far, and anonymous reviews are turned on as well. :) **


	2. Holiday

**NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:**

_I did a lot of research for this fic on the Kosovo War, because I really wanted it to be accurate. I also made sure that the pronunciations were as close to Serbian as possible, and were not completely Americanized pronunciations._**  
><strong>

**PRONUNCIATION NOTE:**

_Natalia's last name, Ristić, is pronounced _RIST-itch_; What Alek calls her, Milošević, is pronounced _me-LOSH-ah-vitch

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><p><span>Chapter 1<span>

_"Bombs Away is Your Punishment"_

Natalia didn't even know if she should have been hanging out with them. They seemed like nice people, but that was just it...they were _human._ They weren't like her. They didn't understand. Even if she told them what was going on with her, she didn't think that they would be open to it. After all, she had supersonic hearing and six-inch claws that sprang out of her fingers when she was angry. She kept picking at her food absent-mindedly, using their conversations as senseless background noise.

"You don't look too appetized with your food there, Milošević." Alek remarked, making her look up at him. _Milošević._ God, how she hated it when he called her that. He insisted on referring to her with it because he thought it was cool, when in reality, it was just really annoying and extremely rude. She had a name, and it was most definitely not that of someone who had been indicted with crimes against humanity. "Maybe something that's not on your plate would be able to catch your attention." He winked.

"Get real, _Commie_." She savored the look in his eyes when she said that. Something inside her had to keep from laughing along with all the other people at the table. Paul and Amy snickered, Jasmine laughed loudly, and Chloe covered her mouth to disguise a giggle as a cough. He mocked her being Serbian, so she mocked his being Russian. Of course, it was a lot more fun to make fun of him being raised in England. Sometimes she called him a twat, and other times she called him a chav.

"At least I'm not a hippie." He chuckled, shoveling food down his mouth. The rest of their table found this much more entertaining than anything that television could offer. Alek and Natalia constantly bickered with each other, with Alek finding it funny, and Natalia...well, she just saw it as insulting.

"I am not a hippie. I'm a vegetarian." She also hated it when he called her a hippie. Being a vegetarian was something that she was extremely strict about. No meat. Not now, not ever. When she was first adopted and brought back to San Francisco, she had terrible nightmares about the airstrike on her town. The smell and sight of burning flesh was imprinted into her mind, and she couldn't get rid of it.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Alek was already done with his plate of food. She didn't know where it all went. He ate three times faster and three times more than a normal human, and you didn't even notice it when you looked at him. She did like to look at him, but only for the purpose of just that. She would never consider an actual date with him, even if she were human. He was arrogant and rude. She grumbled, pushing her tray of food at him. "Thanks, Milošević."

"Don't call me that!" She snapped angrily, making a look of uncharacteristic shock appear on his face. She got up from the table, slamming her hands on the top of it. She burned into Alek with her blue eyes. "You say it like it's a joke! Milošević was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity! He is the reason that I'm sitting across from you at this stupid table!" A slight Serbian accent had come out as she was yelling at him. Her adoptive father had roots in Belgrade, and he taught her how to speak Serbian. She had even been there a few times in the past couple of years with him and her adoptive mother. When she was in the United States, she was easily able to mask her accent. She knew that she shouldn't have been ashamed of it, but she was. People like Alek were thought of as gods because they way the spoke was "posh and British", which was clearly incorrect, because there was no such thing as a British accent; his was English. She was thought of as a terrorist or an evil leftist because idiotic people thought her accent was Russian. It made it even worse when she told them she was Serbian, so she just ignored it.

"Natalia, I didn't know-"

"I bet you didn't know that he started the Kosovo War, either." She said bitterly, gritting her teeth. "That war is the reason that I'm even in this goddamn country for Christ's sake! My family died because of an 'accidental' NATO airstrike on my town. It was an accident that could have been avoided had Milošević not started that war!" She could feel the eyes of the people cafeteria staring at her and Alek. It was dead silent. "Do you know what it's like to be asked if someone should call NATO on you? Do you know how it feels to be asked if you wanted to be knocked up so that you could acquire a visa to this country?" She ran out of the cafeteria with tears falling out of her eyes. They weren't tears of sadness. Only tears of anger and rage.

Alek stood up to go and apologize, but Jasmine pulled him back down. "Don't get too involved. She'll be fine." Sometimes he found her insight annoying. But this time, he knew that she was right. Natalia was human...as far as he knew. Valentina had asked he, Jasmine, and Chloe to befriend her to see if she was Mai. That was weeks ago.

"You like her, don't you?" Chloe said quietly, seeing remorse in his eyes. It was very un-Alek, so she picked it up almost immediately from his empathetic imprint. He continued to pick at the tray of food Natalia had given him. Somehow, he didn't feel hungry anymore.

"That's bollocks." He mumbled, giving up on the thought of trying to eat something. He looked at Jasmine for help, but she had the same look on her face as Chloe did. He was too sensible when it came to human/Mai relations. Liking Natalia wasn't something in his character, but he wouldn't have ruled it out. She was pretty...he would definitely give her that. But there were plenty more girls in the school who were willing to have his children, all while being drop-dead gorgeous. He guessed that he liked her because she wasn't willing to even be in a relationship with him...but that was because she found him repulsively arrogant.

"You're lying!" The Uniter laughed, sensing it within seconds of the words leaving his mouth. He was a very convincing liar, and she had to give him that. But he wasn't convincing enough for her. He looked up at her, narrowing his eyes.

"Prove it."

She knew that an empathetic imprint wasn't enough to prove it to anyone, since she was the only one who could see it. "You flirt with her constantly." It was the only thing that she could think of.

"I flirt with everyone, _sweetheart._" He rolled his eyes. That was true. Actually, he didn't think that he flirted with Natalia more than other girls, and even if he did, nobody would have noticed it. He was still trying to find out why even liked her versus any other human girl. He supposed that it was because he couldn't have her. Then again, he couldn't have _any_ human girl. He thought about it if she were Mai. He didn't see her of the type of girl who was the needy type...and he saw a lot of girls who were the needy type. If she were Mai, she wouldn't feel obligated to date him. That was it.

She was someone that he couldn't have, regardless of species.

"You're still lying." She was completely determined to get him on this. He was a hypocrite for choking on his words. He said that falling in love with a human, or even considering a romantic relationship with one was totally irrational and stupid on the Mai's part. Again, he turned to Jasmine for help, but she wasn't giving it to him. Instead, she was giving him a look of what he called "impending doom", which meant that he had to answer to Chloe now.

"Bro, you're screwed in as many directions as a Konami code." Paul laughed. He got daggers from Alek, and looks of plain confusion from everybody else. "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A." He mumbled, twiddling his thumbs.

"It's nothing." Alek said passively, giving a shrug. He wasn't only trying to convince them, he was trying to convince himself. They all stared him down until he would crack, but he refused to. "I'll get over it." Another lie, which everyone could see right through.

"Well, if Natalia turns out to be human, Valentina won't be too jazzed about finding out that you have feelings for her." Jasmine tried to force some sense into his reckless mind. She hoped that it would work just once.

"Valentina won't be jazzed about finding out, because Valentina won't find out." He directed his gaze toward all the people at the table. When Amy and Paul avoided his eyes, he got up and put his arms around their shoulders. _"Right?"_ He growled, sending shivers up their spines.

"Right." They both said at the same time. They knew that Alek had the balls to kill, but they didn't know if he had the balls to kill them. But then again, it only mattered what he was capable of, and that was all it took for them to agree with him.

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><p>"What more have you three observed about the Ristić girl?" Valentina asked Chloe, Alek, and Jasmine. She was sitting across from the three of them in her chair, while they were on the couch. Chloe and Jasmine looked extremely uptight, but Alek was as laid-back as usual. "Alek, get your feet off the table." She growled.<p>

He sighed, sliding them them onto the floor. "Well, she definitely hates Alek more than the normal person." Chloe rolled her eyes. She didn't know how he did it. You always hated Alek, but then he grew on you, and you couldn't stop it from happening. "She went ballistic on him today."

"Her whole family was killed by an accidental NATO strike in Serbia during the Kosovo War." He mumbled, remembering the words clear as day. He never felt bad when someone yelled at him like that. He just laughed it off. But this time, he couldn't. He felt like there was a cloud above his head, and he couldn't get rid of it. "How was I supposed to know?"

"She's Serbian?" Nobody had told Valentina that before. That changed everything. There was no doubt in her mind that the girl was Mai. Not only that, but she was extremely dangerous. Valentina ran to her room, and plucked a cut-out newspaper article from a folder on one of her shelves. When she came back to the room, she handed it to Chloe. "We lost contact with the Serbian pride that day."

"Oh my God..." Chloe was completely shocked. Natalia was obviously very sensitive to things that had to do with the war, and she had a reason to be.

"The Order carried this operation out by using the war as a successful cover. They made similar attacks on Russia and Ukraine." Valentina was well aware that those were the two attacks that left Alek and Chloe orphans. "The war left the Serbian pride scarred. It wasn't like them to be ambushed so easily. They were extremely loyal to each other, and if someone got in the way they would become unbelievably volatile. It wasn't a bomb that killed them; it was fire and bullets."

"So she's Mai?" Alek asked his adoptive aunt.

"She is most definitely Mai."

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><p><strong>Sorry if it's too short. :( I got some people saying really nice things about the preface, so hopefully this followed it up nicely. And if you're wondering who Milošević was, he was a Serbian dictator, and most of the reason behind the Kosovo War. I suggest that you look him up. <strong>

**It just figures that I would do insane research on a fanfic, yet refuse to do research for school. :P**

**REVIEW PLEASE!**


	3. This is War

**PRONUNCIATION NOTE:**_ Natalia's mother's name, Jelena, is pronounced YUH-lay-nah_

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><p><span>Chapter 2<span>_  
><em>

_"The Martyr, the Victim"_

"I don't understand why I can't do this alone." Natalia mumbled, picking at the shingles at Chloe's roof. It had been a few days since the news had been broken about her being Mai. Of course, she had already known a little bit about them from what she got from the Internet, but she had no idea who or what the Order and the Uniter were. Then once she heard about what really happened to her family, she lost it. She started yelling so much that Alek had to put his hand over her mouth to make her stop.

"It's called supervising_._ I'm _very_ experienced, you know." Alek gave her a cheeky grin_, _putting his arm around her shoulders. She shoved him away, walking to another part of the rooftop. She didn't know why she had to have shared Uniter duty with him instead of Jasmine. Actually, she would have been much more fond of a situation in which she was watching Chloe alone. Besides, according to what was said, she was a natural fighter_. _During training, she kicked Alek's pretty-boy ass. He told her that he let her win, but she didn't buy it.

"Are you always this over-confident?" She put her hands on her hips, turning around to face him. "Like, honestly. You're one of the most arrogant people that I've ever met." If being up front with him about this was going get to the source of the problem, then so be it. She was growing tired of him. He had a lot of friends, so she had to assume that he didn't get them all just by being an ass.

He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to riddle out what he was going to say. He knew that he was arrogant, but he always assumed that people overlooked it. After all, that was how he managed to skate by so easily. People thought he was some sort of a god. He thought that he had a right to be thought of like that. After all, he technically _was_ part-god. "That's a load of crap! Besides, at least I judge people on more than what I know about them at first!" That was one of the first things that he noticed about her. The only Alek she knew was the arrogant one who flirted nonstop, and that was the Alek she treated him like. There were a lot of sides to him. Most of them were some that he sometimes felt uncomfortable with, but they were still a part of him, nevertheless.

"I judge people on a lot more than-" Her attention was caught by the sound of a fire engine's siren. In the distance, she could see the structure of a house burning away a few neighborhoods away from where they were. Suddenly, her breath got caught in her mouth, and Alek could hear her heartbeat become extremely irregular. Her palms started sweating, and she couldn't wipe them off because they were shaking so much. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. Alek could see the reflection of the flames in her pupils, and he tried to calm her down.

"Hey, look at me. Look at me." He tried to pull her shoulders so that she was facing him, but it was like her feet were nailed to the rooftop. Her eyed were glued upon the bright flames, and she couldn't pull them away.

_"MAMA!" Natalia could hear loud bangs outside, and she was starting to smell smoke.__ She was by the window, and her mother pulled her away. There were screams. So many screams. Her whole family was crying out for help, but those cries would never be answered. They were being hunted like game.  
><em>

_Her mother had a look of fear frozen upon her face. It wasn't going to be long before their door was to be shot down. Jelena knew that this was going to happen someday, but she didn't think that it would happen like this. "I'm so sorry, my baby. I'm so, so sorry." She took her gold necklace from around her neck, and she slipped her wedding ring onto it. The bangs got louder, and to Natalia, she was used to hearing bangs. They were bombs. But not this time. This time, they were bullets."MARKO!" She screamed for her husband. He came to his wife and daughter with the same look of fear on his face. He too, took his gold wedding band off. He slid it onto his wife's necklace, and they both clasped it around their daughter's neck. The necklace was not only beyond value for her family, it was beyond value for the country of Serbia. It was the only known relic of St. Sava.  
><em>

_"Oh, my daughter. My sweet, sweet Natalia." Her father held her face in his hands. How would she fare without them? How would she find out about what she truly was? He promised himself that she was going to have a better life. She was going to be happy.  
><em>

_"Marko! They are coming!" Jelena was looking out the window. She saw the members of the Order, going into houses. After that, there were gunshots and screams. Then only flames. Her life was dissolving right before her eyes.  
><em>

_He nodded, standing up next to her. They knew what they had to do. It was the only way to keep her safe. "Natalia, go into the cellar. Don't come out until all the noise is gone. Do you understand?" Her mother said softly, brushing locks of her daughter's hair out of her face. _

_"But I want to stay with you and Papa. Please, Mama, please. I'm scared." The fear in her eyes was mirrored by that of her mother and father's. She looked beyond them, and out the window. There were only bright, orange flames dancing. The house that was on fire belonged to her grandparents. From that day on, Natalia had severe pyrophobia. She couldn't go near fire. If she saw it, she was unable to look away. She became frozen like a statue. _

_"I know you're scared. But you are strong, just like your Papa." Her father picked her up because she was starting to cry. "There, there little one. You have to promise to go to the cellar." He slid a piece of wrapped candy out from his pocket and gave it to her. It was her favorite.  
><em>

_"I promise." She mumbled, crinkling the red cellophane wrapper. She didn't know what was happening. How could she have? She thought that everyone was playing games, and that they only wanted her to go into the cellar because they were playing hide and seek. _

_"Good girl." He chuckled. Marko Ristić was a proud father. He was relatively young, only 23. But he was part of the Serbian Mai pride. He would be willing to give up his life for his family's protection. To have his daughter live on was a great success to him, even if he died in the process of this happening. She was the pride's only hope of carrying on the prestigious fighting genes that they were held in such high esteem for.  
><em>

_"I love you, Natalia." Her mother kissed the top of her head. Jelena Ristić was 18 when she became pregnant with Natalia. She was the only survivor of an attack on her village in the mountains. When she met Marko, things had just fallen into place for her. Everything was supposed to have been perfect. It wasn't supposed to end like this.  
><em>

_"I love you too, Mama."  
><em>

_"I love you, Natalia."_

_"I love you too, Papa." Her father set her down, and she ran to the cellar like she was told. Marko and Jelena braced themselves as the Order drew closer to their doorstep. He looked into her eyes, and he grabbed onto her hand tightly. He refused to let go until he breathed his last breath.  
><em>

_And that was the last time Natalia Ristić saw her parents. _

"Natalia!" Alek was shaking her shoulders. He moved her face so that she was looking at him, and he breathed a sigh of relief once her heartbeat slowed down to a normal pace. "Are you all right?" He looked into her eyes earnestly; all traces of fear were gone as soon as her eyes had been cut away from the burning building.

"I'm fine." She mumbled, pushing him away. She moved her hand to her necklace, like she always did when she thought about her parents. It was the only thing that she had left of them, other than a few pictures that had been found in the cellar along with her. The only way that she could remember what they were like was through her nightmares about the last time she saw them. It was the only memory she had of them. All of her happy ones were gone.

"You wanna tell me what that was all about?" He asked, taking a step closer to her. Alek knew that she wasn't fine at all.

She looked at the ground for a long time, then took in a deep breath. "...It's a long story." Her fear of fire was something that she didn't really open up to people about, but for some reason, she knew that she could trust Alek with the story. After all, his parents had died too. It was something that they had in common, and she felt like he would be able to understand more than anybody else.

"I've got time."

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><p><strong>Review, review, review you guys! I want to know what you're all thinking! <strong>

**BTW, if you're wondering who St. Sava is, he's one of the most important figures in Serbian history. The relic that Nat was given is so valuable because the Ottomans burned all of St. Sava's relics (meaning they burned his entire body), so it's kind of unlikely that a relic of his would exist in real life. But this is a fanfiction, so it doesn't matter haha**

**I also found out that a TON of Serbian-Americans live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I think that I pretty much lucked out there.**_  
><em>


	4. Sweet Disposition

Chapter 3

_"A Moment, a Love, a Dream Aloud"_

"This is Sebastian. He'll be visiting with us from the French pride." Valentina said, patting him on the shoulder. He was easily 6' 2" or 6' 3". He had green eyes, brown hair, and fair skin. Jasmine, Chloe, and Natalia all had their eyes glued to him, and Alek just scoffed at the way they were acting. Another male Mai was definitely not what he needed when he had feelings for Nat. "I'm sure that you'll be welcomed here." She smiled at him.

"I'm very sure that I will." He flashed a smile at Nat, taking her hand in his. _"Mon chère, mademoiselle." _He kissed the top of her hand, and Alek swore that he would have punched him right in the face if there weren't so many people. Sebastian could sense that he wasn't being well-received by somebody.

"You're very sweet." She laughed, obviously being extremely smitten by his charms. "I'm Natalia." She couldn't help but hear Alek scoff from behind her. He was constantly getting on her nerves, and she didn't think that he was going to stop any time soon.

"Natalia, I would ask you to the cinema if you were not already taken." He let go of her hand, looking up at Alek. Sebastian wasn't intimidated easily, but the looks that Alek was giving him made him think twice about his actions. Competition over a mate was most definitely something that was dangerous.

"Oh, I'm not taken! I'm very, very, _very_ un-taken, actually." She stepped on Alek's foot, and he cringed. Nat didn't know what he was pulling, but she didn't like it at all. "He isn't my boyfriend." Somehow, people always thought that. She didn't like it when he followed her around, but it was something that she had to deal with.

"In that case, it would be an honor to escort you to the cinema if it pleases you." His green eyes glittered, and Nat could swear that her knees were beginning to buckle under her. What was it about the French? Was it their accents? Was it their tendency to be old romantics? She didn't care.

_"Don't say yes, don't say yes."_ Alek pleaded with her inside his head. This couldn't happen. It couldn't. All he needed was some more time to prove to her that he wasn't a jerk all the time. It was getting harder to hide his feelings with every day that passed.

"I would love to go."

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><p><em>"<em>Mon chère, mademoiselle<em>." _Alek mimicked Sebastian's accent mockingly, walking around Chloe's room. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "He thinks he's so charming! You know what? I don't buy it! I think he's hiding something!" Alek hated him with the intense fire of a thousand suns. He couldn't stand anything about the French Mai. The only thing he was good for was going back home.

"I think you're hiding something, too." A coy smile appeared on Chloe's lips as she closed her laptop. "You're jealous." Alek crossed his arms over his chest, turning to face her. He couldn't hide it from her, and he knew that it was a waste of his time to try. After all, it wasn't like he didn't get jealous, because he did. He just tried to act like it didn't bother him.

"The way he acts around her just makes me want to punch the look off his stupid French face!" He was so angry he didn't know what other terms to use besides "stupid French face". You know what? Maybe "punch" wasn't the right word. More like snap his neck. But then again, he knew that getting in a fight with another Mai was something that wasn't well-received by the others. They were already being hunted down, and they didn't need more problems on their hands.

"Look, Alek. All you have to do is tell her how you feel." Chloe shrugged. There, problem solved.

"Wow! Why didn't I think of that?" Alek grinned, laughing. But then his smile turned into an incredible scowl, and he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Oh, right. _Because I don't want to look like an asshat._" He rolled his eyes. How was this Uniter thing going to work if she couldn't even deal with a relationship problem? Chloe groaned, falling back onto her bed.

"Why don't you just wait it out, then? It isn't like they're going to get married or anything." Chloe mumbled. He shot her an incredulous look, and she realized that she had made an incredibly stupid mistake. "I'm sorry! Jeez!" He sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was beginning to regret asking her for advice. He made a mental note to never do it again.

Alek's phone buzzed, and he plucked it from his pocket. It was a text message from Jasmine. "Jasmine's going to be here in a minute or two. Time for me to go." He was glad that this conversation was over. Talking to Chloe had only made him feel worse about the whole ordeal. He put his foot on her windowsill, using it as leverage when he jumped out.

He landed on the ground with a slight thump, and he decided to walk into town to get his mind off things. When he neared the coffee shop, he saw Natalia sitting across from somebody. He used his hearing to narrow in on the other person's voice, only to find the voice speaking English with a French accent. Sebastian.

Would Alek ever get a break? The one girl that he had actual, genuine feelings for just happens to get with another Mai? He tried to reevaluate how he felt more than once, and he knew that the way he felt something in his chest when she was around wasn't going away. When she was with Sebastian, he felt sick to his stomach. Normally, he didn't care what people thought of him, but with Natalia, it was everything. He wanted her to know how much he cared about her. He wanted her to know that he could be a real person, and that his sarcasm and over-confidence wasn't all that was left of him.

Because if she was with him, it was because she wanted to. Not because she was forced to because there was nobody else. But now that there _was_ somebody else, he had to fight for her to notice that he was still around. He didn't want her to want him to disappear.  
>He wanted to be there for her.<p>

He just stood on the sidewalk, looking at how happy she was with him. He didn't know if he could make that happen, but he was going to do his best to try. For the first time in his life, Alek Petrov felt invisible to someone. He couldn't understand the feeling at first, but when he saw her laugh, he knew that it was there. She wasn't his, and now it didn't look like she was ever going to be. Suddenly, she looked up, and her eyes met his.

But when she blinked, he was gone.

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><p><strong>OH MY GOD THE NINE LIVES SUMMER FINALE PULLED ME IN SO MANY DIRECTIONS<strong>

**But on a sidenote: I think this chapter is kind of short, and I'm sorry about that. :(**

**REVIEW!**


	5. Your Biggest Mistake

Chapter 4

_"It's a Shame You Don't Know What You're Running From"_

Sebastian knocked on the frame of Alek's bedroom door, and he was waved in. Alek had his back turned to the door, but when he turned around, he didn't really hide his displeasure. "You don't like me very much, do you?" He had been well-aware of this fact since he had started living in their loft for the past two weeks. He had no idea why he was hated by someone whom he barely even knew.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Alek hid his clear annoyance, and the French Mai sighed deeply. It wasn't going to be easy to get through to him. Then, he noticed a book on the nightstand._ Serbian For Beginners._ Ah, that was most definitely it. Alek saw him looking at the book, and he snatched it away. He shouldn't have left it lying out like that.

"You like Natalia." Sebastian's lips drew into a thin line, and a reserved look appeared on his face. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking at Alek with a raised eyebrow. "For some time now. Even before I came." He could read people as easily as someone could read a book. He wanted to be friends with Alek, but he wasn't willing to let go of Natalia for that to happen. Things were going great for them. They had already been out on a few dates, and she had agreed to be his girlfriend just three days ago. Alek had overheard it, and Sebastian guessed that as the reason for the sheet of blue plastic covering a hole in his wall.

"What does it matter?" He mumbled, angrily shoving the book back into his bookshelf. What made his situation worse was that he knew that he had no chance. _Sebastian was perfect._ It was like he didn't have a single flaw. Alek had a lot of flaws. Too many to count.

"Alek, I want to be friends with you. I really do." Sebastian made him face him so that they were looking at each other directly in the eyes. "But you're making this extremely difficult." See? _No flaws._ He knew that Alek hated him, but he still wanted to be friends. Who the hell did that anyway? Sebastian was so nice that it made Alek sick. How could anybody deal with that? He found it incredibly intolerable.

"Look, you don't need to be friends with me." Alek crossed his arms over his chest. Sebastian shrugged, walking out of the room. It was a lost cause. "Oh, but just so you know..."

"What is it?"

"I'm not giving up on her."

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><p>"Mom, I'm home!" Natalia called into her house when she got in. She heard laughing in the kitchen, and saw her mother standing by the counter with a mug in her hand. There was somebody sitting in one of the chairs around the island. They turned around, giving her a glittering grin. <em>"Alek?"<em> She had to prevent her jaw from dropping. How did he even know where she lived?

"Your mother is lovely." He winked at Nat, making her send him a death glare. "We were just talking about you." Oh, God. She wondered what he had said to her mother.

"Alek came by an hour ago, waiting for you to come home." Her mother gave her a look that said, "he better be my future son-in-law." She put her hand on his shoulder, and smiled. "You kids run along, then!" She laughed nervously, leaving the room.

Natalia walked up to him, trying to hold in the growing urge to hit him. _"You came to my house?"_ She hissed, waving her hands out at him. He seemed totally unfazed by how upset she was.

"We have joint Uniter duty tonight. Remember?"

She didn't. In fact, she was positive that she didn't have Uniter duty until tomorrow. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." He didn't really like lying to her, but it was only a little white fib. It couldn't hurt. "Come on, we have to get going." He put his arm around her shoulders, and she quickly shrugged them off.

"Bye, Mom! I'm going out with Alek!" Crap. She hadn't meant for it to sound like that. She hadn't even told her mother about Sebastian yet. Alek snickered, opening the front door for her. She made a face at him, and they stepped out onto her porch. He walked her to his car. A white Camaro with black racing stripes along the hood. "Oh, it's very Alek." She rolled her eyes.

"Why, thank you." He opened the passenger-side door for her, and she knew that she couldn't hate him for being a gentleman. She mumbled a quick "thank you", and sat down. Even though she wasn't too interested in cars like this, Nat had to admit that it was really nice.

On the drive there, even Alek had no idea what to say. He didn't want to talk about her mother, and he definitely didn't want to talk about Sebastian. "How was work?"

"It was fine." She mumbled, looking out the window. He sighed, knowing that there was no point to this. She rolled her eyes at his effort to make conversation. If wasn't so much of an ass, he would have tried a little more. But unnoticed by her, Alek's ears picked up something that hers didn't.

"I'm going to wreck my tires." Alek mumbled, making a sharp turn onto a side street. The loud screech of the rubber against the pavement nearly gave the both of them a heart attack. He didn't know how to get to Chloe's house from where he was, but he didn't mind.

"What the hell was that for?" Natalia's hand was clutching the seat. He pointed his thumb backwards, and within seconds, a fire truck with blaring sirens passed them. There was a blazing fire a few miles away, and he took her pyrophobia into account. "Oh." She down at her hands. How did he manage to make her feel so bad about not liking him? "Thanks."

"No problem." He smiled at her.

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><p>"I'm not always a jerk, you know." Alek said suddenly, looking at Nat. He might as well have gotten it out. They were sitting on Chloe's roof, watching the sunset. He moved closer to her, and even though her first instinct was to move away, she didn't.<p>

"Yeah, I know." Why was he looking at her like that? Even worse..._why was she reciprocating the look?_ She was with Sebastian, and he was amazing. He was nothing like Alek.

"Then why are you making this so hard?" He said softly, leaning in. He put his fingers under her chin, tipping her mouth closer to his.

"Alek...don't..." She drew in her breath sharply, but it was too late. He was already kissing her.

And she was kissing him back.

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><p><strong>REVIEW!<strong>


	6. Bird Song

Chapter 5

_"Well I didn't tell anyone, but a bird flew by_

_Saw what I'd done_

_He set up a nest outside, and he sang about what I'd become. _

_He sang so loud, sang so clear_

_I was afraid all the neighbors would hear."_

"Oh my God..." Natalia's eyes opened during the kiss, and it was only then that she realized the magnitude of what she had been doing. She shoved Alek away, and she held her head in her hands. "What did_ I_ just do? What did _you_ just do? What did _we_ just do?" She gaped at him, shaking her head. She stood up, walking towards the edge of the roof. She had to get out of there. Anywhere was fine, just as long as he wasn't there.

"Nat, you know that-"

"I know that I have a boyfriend, and that's all that matters." She was still in shock. How could she have been so stupid? "And you knew that. You still kissed me, and you knew that."

"I'm not the only one to blame." His lips went into a thin line. Alek folded his arms over his chest. He was walling himself up so that he didn't have to deal with the pain that was coming. Kissing her was stupid, but he hadn't cared at the time. He had wanted to be with her so badly that all that mattered was that one kiss. He had ruined it, and now it wouldn't have been able to be fixed. But then again, she had kissed him back, and the both of them were fully-aware of that. She didn't even know why she had done it. Her mind started to race as fast as her heartbeats with questions like, _"What if I had feelings for him? What if he was better for me than Sebastian? Why did I kiss him back?"_

"Well, it was a _mistake_." She jumped off the edge of the roof, landing swiftly on the ground. She took off running, without even glancing back. Chloe had come to attention from the sound, and she saw Alek standing on the roof, alone. "Where's Nat?"

He didn't say a single word. He had his mouth opened, but nothing was coming out. _A mistake_. That's all that it was, and all that it ever would be to her. Chloe walked in front of him, and he wouldn't even look at her. His eyes were fixated on the spot where Natalia had been only a few moments ago. She had to have had feelings for him. Why else would she have kissed him back? Suddenly, the expression of confusion on the Uniter's face morphed into horror. There was only one explanation for this.

_"Alek, what did you do?"_ _  
><em>

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><p>Every time Sebastian looked at her with his green eyes, she could only see Alek's brown ones. She could have worn that his French accent had turned into an English one more than once. She couldn't get Alek off her mind. "Hm?" She asked him. She hadn't heard what he had said. There was no possible way that she could pay attention now.<p>

"I asked you how Uniter duty was last night."

"It was fine." She mumbled, toying with her coffee cup. The guilt was burning inside of her. How was she supposed to tell Sebastian that she kissed Alek?

"Was Alek there?"

She looked up at him with a panicked expression. "Uh...yeah. He was." Did he know anything? Was she letting on to it? She stopped fiddling with her coffee cup, and acted like she was paying complete attention to him. "Um...Seb...I have to tell you something."

He looked up at her with a puzzled expression, raising one of his eyebrows. "Sure."

"...I...Alek...he...Alek kissed me, Seb."

"What?" His voice cracked because he was in so much shock. There was no way that this was happening. He balled his fists under the table, trying to keep himself from knocking it over.

"I know you're mad, and I-"

"I'm not mad at you,_ ma belle_." He was going to snap Alek's neck. Shove him off the San Francisco bridge. Crack every single one of his ribs, one by one. "You told me, and that's the only thing that matters." Obviously, he was afraid that something was going to happen to their relationship. He saw Alek as the clear competition now, and nothing else. He sat back in his chair, with his mind in as many places as hers was. He trusted her, he just didn't trust Alek. He glanced at his watch from the corner of his eye. He was too uncomfortable about everything to even think straight. "I have to go."

"What's wrong?" They had set aside this time just so that they could see each other with any interruptions.

"I forgot that I had Uniter duty. With Jasmine. You know." He shrugged, grabbing his leather jacket off the back of the chair. They both stood up, and he kissed her goodbye. He definitely didn't have Uniter duty, and the both of them knew that.

Because Chloe's house was the opposite way he was walking.

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><p>Sebastian wasn't going to play nice anymore. He was sick of it. Now Alek had crossed the line, there was no doubt about it. "PETROV!" His voice echoed into the park. He knew that Alek was here. His car was parked by the sidewalk. Seb punched the windows out of the white Camaro, making the sirens blare into the night.<p>

"What the fuck, Sebastian!" Alek ran over to him, running his hands through his hair.

"Stay the hell away from my girlfriend, you son of a bitch." He spat, connecting his fist with Alek's jaw.

Alek was more than ready for a fight. He had been preparing since day one, and now he couldn't wait to make Sebastian regret ever setting foot in San Francisco. He grabbed him by the collar, dragging him to the ground. "YOU ARE SUCH A DOUCHEBAG! I AM SO SICK OF YOU BEING HERE!" Alek screamed, hitting Sebastian in the face harder with each word. "You know that she belongs with me!"

The French Mai shoved Alek off him, and then pinned him against a tree. His knee met with Alek's abdomen multiple times, blowing against his rib cage. He knew that he had cracked at least one. Only twenty-three to go. "You missed out on your chance. And you are never, _ever_ going to get another one." He growled, slamming Alek against the tree.

By then, a significant number of people had come outside from the shops because they heard the sound of Alek's car sirens. Conveniently, the clothing store that Chloe worked at was one of the shops. "What's the dea-...oh my God, that's Alek's car!" Chloe yelled, running across the street.

Alek's pupils narrowed, and his claws sprung out. He slashed at Sebastian's chest, ripping his shirt open. Blood poured from both of their wounds, but there was no way that either of them were giving up until one of them got what they deserved. Seb's claws protracted, and he made a quick swipe at Alek's face.

Chloe ran over to them, pulling Sebastian off Alek before he could cause any more damage. "What's gotten into the both of you!"

By then, the adrenaline flow in their systems had stopped, and all they felt was pain. They couldn't even open their mouths to make a sound, except for wincing. Alek wanted to curl up on his side to make the pain go away, but his broken rib was preventing him from even moving. At least of three of Sebastian's fingers were fractured from all the force he used to hit Alek. There were three slash marks on Sebastian's chest, and they were all pouring vast amounts of blood. Chloe took off his shirt, and used it to try to stop the bleeding while she called an ambulance. They were both pulling at the grass by their hands in pure agony, just trying to grip onto something. The worst part was that they didn't even pass out to numb the pain. Their eyes were wide open, just staring at the sky above them.

_"I picked up the bird and above the dim I said, _

_'That's the last song you'll ever sing'_

_Held him down, broke his neck_

_Taught him a lesson he wouldn't forget."_

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><p><strong>Okay, so this chapter is set up a little differently in terms of the lyric that I put in the beginning, but this song fits so well at all the parts I decided to put a few more in!<strong>

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